The Magic Mountain Chapter Abstracts for Teachers

Chapter 1

• Hans Castorp gets dizzy from the thin air and the panoramas spread out before him as he ascends the Alps to arrive in Davos-Platz where he is greeted by his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen.

• When Hans remarks about heading home, Joachim explains that time is different in the mountains as he shows Hans his "blue Henry" and discusses his ongoing symptoms.

• As he settles into his room, Hans learns that an American woman has just died in this room, and he is horrified to hear a peculiar sickly cough from an Austrian horseman down the hall.
• During Hans' welcome meal, Joachim expresses satisfaction that Hans has come, though the cousins are usually reserved with one another.

• When Hans turns the conversation away from home and toward the sanatorium and its patients, Joachim tells Hans about some of the patients, such as Frau Stohr.